Daily News

Philippines – Three recruitment agencies suspended

07 January 2014

The Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) has suspended three recruitment firms after they were found to be illegally hiring Filipinos and deploying them to a different country from the one to which they were supposed to be sent, reports globalnation.inquirer.net.

Empleos Incorporated, Nahed International Manpower Services, and Ridzkey Human Resources International Services have been suspended after they were found to be processing papers of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) but transferring them to Jordan upon arrival there.

Hans Leo Cacdac, POEA Administrator, commented: “The scheme employed by the respondents is a prima facie case of trafficking-in-persons; considering the fact that the workers were officially processed for the UAE but they were deployed instead to employers in Jordan that are not accredited or registered with the POEA.”

“The POEA motu propio (of its own accord) filed administrative complaints against the three agencies after receiving memos from the Philippine Overseas Labour Office (POLO) in Jordan requesting assistance for [the] immediate repatriation of Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs) deployed by the agencies,” he added.

The OFWs left their employers and requested immediate repatriation, but the recruitment agencies did not comply. The preventive suspension order has been issued against the three agencies, and they were also ordered to be included in the POEA’s list of agencies disqualified to recruit and deploy OFWs while an investigation was on-going.

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